Take Flight
by DiscoPirate
Summary: Welcome to my first fanfic, about the Last of Us. Join a trio of OC heroes in their quest throughout the States, on their search for an ever elusive helicopter. Can they survive Hunters, Infected, the Military, their own ineptitude and a general lack of survival skills? Joel and Ellie make a signifigant appearance later on.
1. Chapter 1: Going Nowhere Fast

**Hello readers! This is my first ever fanfic, written about the lovely game The Last of Us. Review, critique, and tell me if you liked it. Otherwise, thanks for your time.**

Take Flight

"Get up." An unusually British voice called out from the black. My head was throbbing, and something sticky and warm dampened my hair.

"Bloody fucking hell Arthur, get the fuck up!" I was yanked to my feet. My eyes opened and revealed a young man, in his twenties, blond hair, brown eyes, wearing a pair of tattered jeans and a shirt that I assume used to be white. His name was Eric King.

"King? What the hell happened?" I asked.

"Roof collapsed; you fell straight through to the second floor." Eric looked around nervously. "Anyway, there's no time, Hunters are on the way, and I want to get the drop on them."

I groaned. It was my first day outside of the Wilmington QZ, and I had already managed to get myself into some sort of danger. I nodded to Eric. "Alright, we don't have any ammo, and I don't have a knife. Assuming you still want to fight them, you have a plan?"

Eric grinned and unstrapped his cleaver from his back. "Always. As far as I can tell, there's only two. You distract, I'll slip out the window and flank. Sneak up on the one in the back, you rush the one in front."

I snorted. "You realize I've never been in a fight before, let alone killed anyone?"

The sounds from the lower floors grew louder, and a pair of voices became more distinct. Eric clapped me on the back. "Well then, here's a good time to start. Let's move."

I took cover behind a rotting table. The room only had one entrance the hunters could use. Eric climbed out of an open window and eased himself to the ground floor silently. From there, he wouldn't be able to help me. I was on my own for now.

The Hunters came closer, turning their backs to my hiding place to inspect the rubble from the third floor's collapse. I took the opportunity to take a look at my opponents.

"Hey, Frank. Look at that. Whole damn celling fell down." The first was a woman, armed with a pistol, was covering the rear. She was in her thirties, wearing a red fishing vest and cargo shorts.

The one known as Frank nodded. "Might be tourists still in the area. Keep sharp." He was sporting a tan leather jacket that had seen better days, and a rifle. _Fuck, _I thought to myself,_ they both have guns._

As they walked closer, I realized something. If Eric wanted to, he could simply have left me up here with the Hunters, and walked away. Fortunately, Eric soon appeared into view, silently creeping up the stairwell. He threw a wink my way, twirling his cleaver in anticipation.

The man called Frank took another look around the room,. "Anyone still here?" he called. "We have medical supplies if you need th-" His lies were cut off by the woman's screams. I glanced that way, and saw Eric had buried his cleaver deep into her shoulder.

Frank grabbed at his rifle and aimed at Eric. I leapt out and tackled him, knocking him to the ground. He kicked me off of him and reeled back his arm for a haymaker. I managed to scramble out of the way in time. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his rifle, lying on the floor. I rushed towards it, grasping at the stock. I didn't make it. Frank punted me across the floor, sending me crashing into a wall. My chest hurt like hell, and I was struggling for breath. Frank smiled.

"This is just way too fucking easy. C'mere you little shit." He dragged me off of the floor and slugged me in the face. I recoiled in anticipation of a second hit, but it never came.

Instead, I opened my eyes to see Eric, sporting his signature sadistic smile, and his cleaver lodged in Frank's leg. "Sorry for the wait, thought you could handle it." He tossed the woman's pistol to me and nodded. "C'mon then. Finish the fucker."

I pressed the pistol against Frank's forehead, shut my eyes, and pulled the trigger. I heard his body slump to the floor, and I felt sick to my stomach. Eric slapped me on the back. "Fun, wasn't it? Get your shit together; we're in the presence of a lady." He laughed at his own joke.

I looked over at the woman. She was pressed up against the corner, clutching her shoulder in pain. When Eric and I walked closer, she recoiled back in fear. "Please…no, leave me alone."

Eric squatted down to her level and smiled. "Look love, let me explain to you how this is going to work. I will ask you a few questions. You will answer them, truthfully, or I will take your arm off. After my questions, you get to go home. Understand?"

She nodded. Eric continued. "First: you have a camp somewhere in the city. Where is it?"

"L-less than a mile from here, to the north."

Eric looked my way. "Is that in our path?" I shook my head. "Not in the slightest. We'd have to go the opposite way."

Eric sighed in relief. "Alright, so it's safe to let her go. Second question: Do you have any other supplies or caches in the area?"

She shook her head. "Just what we have on us."

Eric smiled. "Thank you for your time. When you wake up, go home." He wrapped his hands around her throat until she drifted into unconsciousness. He stood up and looked at me. "Alright, truth time, is this place in our way?"

I nodded grimly. "If she's telling the truth, they'd likely be stationed right in the middle of it. I-76 starts to the north of here, that's our path."

"Excellent. We'll kill them, restock there, and head out. Nice work there Arty, we'll make a killer out of you yet."

The sheer thought of killing someone made me feel ill. I shrugged it off. We were running out of daylight. "Alright, King, you search our unconscious friend there, I'll check….him." I gestured to Frank's body.

Eric laughed. "Right-o Arty. Besides, I'm better with women anyway, eh?"


	2. Chapter 2: A Bonding Exercise

My stomach groaned loudly. We hadn't eaten at all since yesterday, not that I could likely force anything down. The memories of my first kill were still fresh in my mind. The woman who we had been following had wandered too far from the path we needed to travel. Apparently she had lied. Her mistake. Eric didn't hesitate in putting her down. He wanted me to do it at first, called it a "learning opportunity", but he eventually decided to handle it himself.

That had been a few hours ago. It was getting dark soon, so Eric and I had taken shelter inside of an old grain silo. Rust coated the sides, but apart from that, there were no holes or other entrances that could give us away. We were maintaining our equipment at the moment and he took the time to ask me a few questions. As exciting as today's events had been, they didn't draw a candle to our dramatic escape from the Wilmington QZ.

"Alright, I'll bite." Eric broke the silence. "What are you doing out here?"

"I told you," I said flatly, "We're going cross country. Hopefully make it to Wyoming before fall."

"I heard that part. I mean, why?" He took out his cleaver, inspecting it for wear. "I mean, I know why I'm going. But you hadn't even been in a fight before today. The hell's so important you decided to leave the QZ for it?"

"What's with all the questions all of a sudden?" I questioned. Our conversations up to this point had been out of necessity. Eric asking for personal info was out of character for us.

"I dunno, thought some friendly conversation could break the awkward as hell silence back there." He pointed at me accusingly. "Anyway, quit dodging mate! Answer the damn question, yeah?"

I thought for a moment. "Eric? How old are you?"

"Twenty-two, why?"

I nodded. "I'm forty-eight. You're too young to remember what it was like before all this, but back then, I was a historian. I had some exhibits of mine put in a museum warehouse out in Wyoming; decided I wanted them back."

At this, he laughed. "Fucking badass, mate! You're telling me, you left the safest place you knew of, so you can find some toys you dug up from the bloody sand? What the hell put that in your head?"

I scratched my head. "That one's a story for another night. This doesn't change our plans though. It's more of a pit stop."

He refastened his cleaver to his belt and yawned. "Doesn't matter to me. So long as we get that heli, I'm golden."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What about you? Why are you leaving?"

He shrugged at me and brushed some hair from his eyes. "Decided I'd go and see England." I tried to cover up a snicker, unsuccessfully.

"Oi! The hell's so funny?"

"Apart from your accent, what do you know about England? Hell, how'd you even get an accent in Delaware?"

"My mum passed it to me. She hated the QZ, always wanted to go back to England. Spoke of it like it was a fairy tale. Guess I decided I'd go see what all the fuss was about."

"There's more to this story than you're sharing, isn't there?" I asked.

"Probably. But that's all you'll get out of me sober anyway," he said with a grin. "Now come on. Unless you happen to know where we can pick up some drinks and girls, you've got no right keeping me up past nine, at best."

I glanced at my watch. _11 o'clock, damn…_, I thought. "Alright then King. Let's get some sleep."

As Eric drifted off to sleep, an internal debate raged on in my mind.

_Was any of this worth it? Most of the things you had are likely either rotted or stolen, and even the ones left are worthless now, _asked one voice._ Are you really willing to risk your life for this?_

_It's not about you, remember that, _said another voice. _If we even get one of the artifacts back, it was worth it. For them._

With the thoughts finally settling down, I drifted off to sleep with ease. _Someone had to remember our sacrifice, our work_, I reasoned. _It might as well be me._


	3. Chapter 3: One More for the Road

**Sorry it took so long to get this up, personal problems abound. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading. What do you think about the characters so far? Let me know.  
**

"Hey, wake up," Eric whispered.

I opened my eyes. It was about 3 o'clock, but I noticed a beam of light piercing through the darkness.

"Flashlights?" I whispered back.

"Yeah, and we need to get the fuck out of here before we're trapped." Eric pushed open the silo door slowly, and peered out into the night. "It's clear, let's move," he announced, and I quickly followed him into the fields. We crept through the plant stalks, carefully watching our steps to ensure we wouldn't make a sound. In the pitch black darkness, I could barely see two feet in front of me. Suddenly, a flashlight swept over us.

"Oh fuck, Williams, here!" yelled one of the soldiers. "Freeze, don't move!" We didn't listen.

We ran off through the fields, bullets flying in the air around us. I hadn't the slightest idea on where we were going, but we needed to put some distance between us and their guns. I looked out into the distance and saw our salvation: a barn. Hopefully, we could lose them in there, or at the very least, find some cover. Overgrown grass does little to protect one from bullets.

We burst through the doors, not bothering to pause and open it. To our surprise, we weren't alone. The barn had a platform along the top of it, and a woman was sitting there, looking as shocked as I was. I didn't waste any time trying to explain our predicament.

"Military's right behind us," I said, "you're gonna want to get out of here." Light flooded the room from the outside, and the woman took off without a word.

"Turn around slowly," said one of the soldiers. We turned around to see the two soldiers pointing their guns at us. "Alright now… put your hands up in the air." Behind them, a small figure skulked in the shadows. The woman from earlier had come to give us aid it seemed. I needed to stall, and something was off about these two. I decided to test my theory.

"So, aren't you going to check us?"

The two stared at me blankly. I smirked and looked at Eric, who was sporting a similar grin.

"After all, we could be infected. Why don't you just pull out your scanner and get that over with?"

"Er.. " one started, "That's not necessary. You don't look infected."

"Alright then. Shouldn't you call HQ? Tell them two for pickup."

The "soldier" timidly grabbed his radio and spoke into it. "Er.. HQ, we have two for transport."

"Over."

What?"

"Over. We have two for transport over, your attempt at masquerading as soldiers is over, this whole charade is over." I said with a wide smile.

The two of them looked at each other, and turned back to us. "Alright you got me," one said. "Now, does that change your current problem?"

"No, but this might."

Two gunshots echoed throughout the barn. One of the men dropped to the ground instantly, clutching his side. The second turned around to face our savior, exposing his back to Eric. He didn't last much longer.

While Eric struggled to pry his cleaver from the man's neck, I walked over to the woman who had saved us. My first observation of our savior was that she was incredibly old, even for pre-outbreak standards. To Eric, she must have looked ancient. Her hair was cut short, streaked with white and grey, and her face was covered in wrinkles and scars. She forced a smile at me, still clutching her rifle.

"Well, you two seem none worse for wear. Mind sharing what you were doing out here?"

"Well, seeing as you did just save our asses, it couldn't hurt much." I replied. "I'm Arthur, he's Eric, and truth be told, we're on a bit of a journey. "

"Emily, nice to meet you. Where are you two going?"

"Heading to Wyoming," I added. "There's some stuff we've got to clear up down there."

"Alright then, it's settled," she said, strapping her rifle onto her back. "I'm tagging along."

Eric and I looked at her incredulously.

"What?"

"I'm coming along, if that's alright." She paused for a moment, and added, "Not much you could really do to stop me anyway."

Eric broke his silence. "Why? I mean, you really want to follow two random blokes into the middle of nowhere?"

"Better than being bored here. Long story short, I've been sitting in one place for far too long. Humor me, will ya?"

I sighed in defeat. "Fine. Welcome aboard." At this, Emily clapped in delight.

"Perfect. We'll head on over to my place, grab my gear, and be off before you know it! You're not gonna regret this, I promise you that."


End file.
